The present invention relates to underwater breathing apparatus, and in particular to regulators for underwater breathing apparatus.
Regulator devices are known which comprise a box-like body containing the device that regulates the admission of air from the first reducing stage, fitted with a mouthpiece through which the said air is inhaled and an outlet through which the exhaled air is discharged, the air-regulating device comprising a chamber in which the regulating valve is located and a chamber that communicates with the surrounding water, the chambers being separated by a diaphragm that controls the regulating valve. The chamber that communicates with the surrounding water is generally delimited by the diaphragm and by a wall, usually consisting of a removable cover, provided with a plurality of apertures through which the water enters the chamber.
Regulators of the above described kind are known for instance from U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,441,216; 2,878,807; 4,219,017; FR 120 535 and GB 1,570,065.
With regulators of this type, when the diver is moving at speed through the water for any length of time, or when there are strong currents, the water pressure generated by the speed of the movement may spuriously deflect the diaphragm through the apertures in the cover, causing the regulating valve to be activated erroneously and therefore, in the final analysis, wasting breathable air.
The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a regulator in which the water entering the chamber that communicates with the surrounding water is able to generate, inside the chamber, a pressure consistent with the ambient pressure, but not adversely affected by the diver's movements.
From U.S. Pat. No. 3,054,414 an underwater regulator is known provided with a grid positioned in correspondence of the outlet, or exhalation opening of the regulator (see column 2, lines 9 to 12). The scope of the presence of this grid is not explained in said patent, but obviously its scope is not the same as the scope of the present invention.
Finally, from GB 2,233,237 a valve arrangement for controlling air supply to the facial cavity for a safety breathing apparatus is shown, provided with a dust cover provided with a cylindrical wall having apertures each covered by a filter (See page 8, lines 34 and 35 and page 9, lines 1 to 5). Again the scope of said device is quite different from the scope of the invention.
The subject of the present invention is therefore a regulator comprising a box-like body containing the device that regulates the admission of air from the first reducing stage, fitted with a mouthpiece through which the air is inhaled and an outlet through which the exhaled air is discharged, the air-regulating device comprising a chamber in which the regulating valve is located and a chamber that communicates with the surrounding water, the chambers being separated by a diaphragm that controls the regulating valve, with the chamber that communicates with the surrounding water being delimited by the diaphragm and by a wall provided with a plurality of apertures, characterized in that the apertures are provided with means that break up the flow of fluid through the latter.
Advantageously, the break-up means comprise grill elements, made of plastic or metal, attached to the individual aperture or, alternatively, a single wall of grill material that is able to control all the apertures.